Archive | July, 2013

We are like you. We live in your cities, we laugh at your jokes, we share your good times and your bad ones. We meet you in clubs and back alleys, at glamorous parties and dive bars. We need you, to sate our endless hunger. We are your Kindred.

They are the smoke and the darkness, things that could have been you or us, creatures of hunger that humanity stole the night from. They are the Strix.

This anthology chronicles our struggle, and unveils the schemes and atrocities of Kindred and Strix alike.

While communities across the United States mourn the state of education, the non-profit Seekers Unlimited is changing the very nature of education for the better with Live Action Role Playing games or LARPs. Seekers Unlimited has been testing its educational LARPs in classrooms in Los Angeles for over a year. Now Seekers wants to bring six of its “edu-LARPs” to the nation through a game changing Kickstarter campaign. People who believe that kids should love learning and succeed in school are helping Seekers to reach its goal of raising $8,000 by August 30, 2013.

Tears of a Machine is a tabletop story game (or RPG) of giant robots and teenage pilots inspired by the mecha anime shows that I love: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Fafner: Dead Aggressor, Gunparade March and others. Playing the character of a young pilot, you’ll be connected to the brain of a SAInt, a robot crusader with a dangerous will of its own, and sent to fight the alien raiders and their monstrous war machines.

A game of Tears of a Machine is about the characters first. The rules and situations of the game are tuned to create stories about the pilot’s hopes, dreams, and fears. A pilot’s ego can turn failure into success or mire a pilot in depression. What happens in the classroom or at the diner is just as important for a pilot as what happens on the battlefield.

After Margaret Weis Productions announced they had acquired the Firefly RPG license at the end of February, we looked at the calendar. GenCon. Wow, what a show. Could we do it? Could we develop the system, launch a digital line of adventures, and put together a full corebook in time for the show? Our answer was: “No, there isn’t enough time.”

Personally, I think Plan B — even though it’s been a little crazy for all of us — has turned out pretty damn good. As I sit here typing this, I’m waiting for page proofs for Gaming In The ‘Verse: GenCon 2013 Exclusive, our first limited edition release.

The Exclusive announcement was met first with trepidation. What is this crazy thing? A beta? (No, it’s not.) Then, as we revealed more and more information about this 272 page game book — the more excited folks have been getting.

Pulse-pounding action meets cosmic horror in this exciting collection from the rising stars of the New Cthulhuiana.

Steel your nerves, reach into your weapons locker, and tie tight your running shoes as humanity takes up arms against the monsters and gods of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Grab your pistols, your knives, your gearpunk grenades. Confront deep ones, mi-go, and flying polyps. Fight in the past, present and future, from the birth of the shotgun to the end of the world. Escape by car, carriage, and hot air balloon. Above all, remember to count your bullets…you may need the last one for yourself.

From a squalid New York drug den to the spectral ruins of Sarkomand . . .

From the horrors of the Underworld to the zoog-haunted Enchanted Wood . . .

From the twilight city of Inquanok to the endless sunset of Ilek-Vad . . .

All the wonders of dream await—and all the terrors of nightmare, too.

The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man is a full-length Call of Cthulhu (Sixth Edition) campaign of adventure, cosmic mystery, and deepest fear set in the Dreamlands of H.P. Lovecraft. The player characters—the Dreamers—explore the breadth of the otherworldly Dreamlands seeking a way back to the lives that they left behind. But can they survive the countless dangers of a world of dream—and the strange emnity of Nyarlathotep, the messenger and soul of the Outer Gods, when they fall under his capricious gaze?

I haven’t posted one of these since the end of March, and for that… I apologize. If you’re just following up on these now, the progress reports are to check in and show you what’s up in Monica-land. I’m happy to report that all plates are spinning and balanced appropriately. I may even have a […]

11 Tales of Ghostly Horror

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